Must Read

I recently become a huge fan of litdrift.com. They have great articles about writing, books, and other scholarly pursuits that I find my time to be well spent on. This article is for all you closet gamers, and those of you who arn't. Damn, I love the Oregon trail game, I have it on my blackberry. Maybe that's why I'm not getting any writing done...

http://www.litdrift.com/2009/11/24/why-writing-is-like-riding-the-oregon-trail/

Helpful

Here are some helpful links to a few articles on writer's digest. They are a great resource for the want to be published author. Like myself.

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/17_Writing_Secrets/

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/Plot_Planner_Exercise/

http://www.writersdigest.com/upload/images/PDF/checklists.pdf

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/4-techniques-to-fire-up-your-fiction/

http://www.writersdigest.com/upload/images/Z4813_Sec2WKST.pdf

Been a While

I haven't posted in a while, mostly due to finals at school. Its about time I said something snappy. So we're going to talk about writing for trends, good or bad?

Whether we like it or not vampires are hot right now. According to the agent blogs so are angels. Who knew? Neither of these things I am a big fan of. But here's the question: should you write for the trend? Do you write about something just because its popular and selling right now?

I'm gonna have to say no on this one for a few reasons.
1) Just because something is hot now, does not mean it will be later. Publishing a book takes a long time. Once you've gotten an agent, an offer, a house, and signed a contract, it can still take up to a year to get the book published. That is long enough for a trend not to be a trend anymore.
2) Everyone and their brother's mother's sister is writing about it too. Agents and editors alike are bombarded with manuscripts written by half the people you see on the bus looking to jump on the trend. Most of these people won't be able to string a sentence together let alone write a book. Yours better be really damn special to get noticed.
3) You should write what you know and what your good at, not just what's popular right now. Yes, if your goals are ultimately publishing you do have to write for your reader. But... If what your passionate about and what your good at is adult post-apocalyptic SF, your probably going to have a hard time with teen paranormal romance. Some people are really good at epic fantasy and others good at urban. Sometimes switching back and forth is easy, other times no so much. This one is really up to you. What are you good at? What do you like to write.

In the end you should be writing the best story you can. No matter what that story is and if it follows the trend or not. If your story is good you'll have a better chance at it being published than if its just with the trend.

New Ideas

I love new ideas. Getting them, starting them, working on them. Not just do they give you some needed distraction from a project you've lost sight on. But they can really get you writing. They're just so shiny, and well, new.

I usually have a couple different projects going at once. That way if I get stuck on one, I move to another and keep going. It not only keeps me writing, but it usually gets me over the writer's block on the other project. I suppose its the one nice thing about being unpublished. No deadlines.

So if you only have one story. And you know who you are. I know that one story seems like everything to you. That it is the one and the only one. Well I encourage you to branch out. No matter what the other one will still be there.

Aftermath

I always feel a bit hollow after nano. Your just so pumped on that one project that when its done and over with, your left with: now what? Sure I have other projects. And I'm trying very hard to work on them. But that empty feeling is still there. My other works don't seem to be going anywhere, without the panic and rush that comes with nano. I could try and trick myself, but sadly, I'm not very gullible.

Still, being a writer means plowing through the hard times, which are most of them. Unpublished or not. Because that's what separates us from those who will make it to the publishing house, and those who will not. Like the hero of your story who faces insurmountable odds. If you have the drive to keep going, even though its tough and someone's paved the way with broken glass. You grit your teeth and keep on keeping on. It is that work, that drive, and most importantly the willingness to learn that will get you to your publishing goals. Plenty of people write books, most of them know nothing about it. Nothing about the process, they way to go about getting published, and they don't want to. It shall set us apart. Those of us who are willing to do the work, to research who we send to, tailor our query letters, and most importantly, to keep writing even if this project is not 'the one'. Because maybe it will be the next one, or the one after that, and that's okay. Because our writing will get better and eventually someone will notice.